2010 WBRA #7 & #8 @ City Front 6/12/2010
By: McKinley Morganfield
Posted: June 15, 2010
Well, if you’ve viewed the results, you are probably wondering, what happened that day? Four boats in Race 1 and five in Race two out of 14 registered? The word williwaw comes to mind. Which is what you might call what we had out of the North East in the morning of the race.
The Bay was a washing machine at 9AM and not the normal stuff on account of the wind direction. Not unusual, except it usually builds to that over the course of the day. The Nor-Easter also caused some problems extracting the boats but the real question was, “if its blowing like this now, what is going to happen as the wind typically builds during the day?” This and perhaps a World Cup match caused some race weary skippers (Woodies last weekend plus a Wednesday in between) to remain in safe harbor. The four who answered the gun (including both Englishman who call our fleet home – this is relevant to point out because the Cup match was between USA and England) were rewarded with a rapidly decreasing wind strength, bright sunshine and pleasant conditions plus the unusual course direction parallel with the GGB due to the Nor-Easter. By the time the two lap first race was done, the wind was way down. This sailor surmises the Valley heated and the onshore and offshore breezes were doing battle and the onshore Westerly finally prevailed. The nice RC picked up shop, reset and away we went on with the second race with the addition of a 5th boat. Racing was fun, despite the low turnout and a good points day were had by all who came to play.
– McKinley Morganfield